Best Method to Ripping DVD's to add to iTunes Collection

Try MacTheRipper.

Wicked1 said:

I know MacTheRipper, but what settings etc, I have only used it a few times, and I Ripped it using the bare minimal, I am mostly looking for the specific settings.

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If you are just after a copy of the disc with all the menus etc then I don't really see what specific setting you would need. Just let it go as it is and you have your copy.

MTR is great and like said before just do a full disc rip.

You can also try Ripit, it's only option is a full disk rip.

If you want to add to iTunes you can only add the movie to itunes. So you can file away the full disk rip and the use HB to encode the movie only for iTunes.

I use MakeMKV...then encode using Handbrake.

I just noticed that you say this is to add to iTunes.

You aren't going to be able to keep all the menus etc if you want it in iTunes. In that case I'd use Handbrake, as it's fairly easy. Just use a preset like Apple TV or High Profile (it depends on what you are likely to want to watch it on).

That will just give you each individual film/program as a m4v file. No menus I'm afraid.

I have been doing this since 2006 for the original ATV. I found that Handbrake 64bit and using the Universal template, it works the best and will able to play on all your iDevices as well.

I am very happy with this method. I have a 8-core mac pro now with 8gb ram and rip to a 10k hdd. I can sometimes rip a full movie in 11 min.

Good luck and enjoy!! :

KeithJenner said:

I just noticed that you say this is to add to iTunes.

You aren't going to be able to keep all the menus etc if you want it in iTunes. In that case I'd use Handbrake, as it's fairly easy. Just use a preset like Apple TV or High Profile (it depends on what you are likely to want to watch it on).

That will just give you each individual film/program as a m4v file. No menus I'm afraid.

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+1 - This method works well ... I watch movies all the time on my iPod Touch

Wicked1 said:

I am looking to Rip all the DVDs we have in the House so I have an electronic version of the disc, but what is the best method for doing this, I am looking to get the whole thing, including menu;s etc just in case a disc gets destroyed by the kids like several have.

Disc space is not an issue because I just will buy another external, but I want the cleanest and purest method possible.

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If you're only interested in ripping the actually more, I highly recommend WinX DVD for Mac. I haven't found a single movie yet that it can't copy (I just did Toy Story 3). The other advantage is it can make a copy of the movie in about 20-30 minutes. Every so often the software pops up for free, if not it's somewhere around $40.

KeithJenner said:

I just noticed that you say this is to add to iTunes.

You aren't going to be able to keep all the menus etc if you want it in iTunes. In that case I'd use Handbrake, as it's fairly easy. Just use a preset like Apple TV or High Profile (it depends on what you are likely to want to watch it on).

That will just give you each individual film/program as a m4v file. No menus I'm afraid.

Click to expand...

I took the OP as wanting to do both Back up the whole disk and also watch through iTunes.

If that is what is wanted then you will need enough storage to keep the "movie only" file for iTunes and enough to keep the backup of the whole disc. This will be a lot of storage.

Full rip with Menus and all data on disk = 4 to 8 GB per disk
Move only encode through HB = 1.5 to 3 GB

If that is what you want then the best path (IMHO) is MTR or Ripit to get the whole (full) disk ripped to your HD. Handbrake to encode the movie only for iTunes.

You may also find that you need something like DVD2oneX to clean up some of the full Disk rips. I have ran into a few that for some reason HB would not find the right title to encode until i ran it through DETOX.

You can also use DETOX to join two disk together , where the movie is spread across two disk (like Lord Of The Rings ext edition).

I got this from an earlier thread posted by CanyonBlue737:

For A4 CPU devices (iPhone/iPad/AppleTV2) the following is OUTSTANDING:

1. High Profile [Best setting in Handbrake, but doesn't work on iPhone 3G or the old Apple TV]
2. RF of 19 for DVD, 20-22 for Bluray. [Smaller numbers are HIGHER quality, but lower than 18 gets no real increase in the quality you can see but will quickly exceed the original size of the DVD or Bluray, don't do it! These values create great transfers with reasonable, in some cases outstandingly small sizes, I use 20 for Bluray as I don't mind using a bit more space, but 21-22 are good too, try it.]
3. Framerate NTSC 29.97 and check the "Peak Framerate Box" [This tells Handbrake to use the NATIVE frame rate of the source unless it exceeds 29.97 in which case it would limit it to 29.97 which makes sure you stay compatible.]
4. Check the "Large File" box. [This helps with compatibility if your file exceeds 4GB, in most cases it won't.]
5. Add second audio track under Audio tab for Passthrough or DTS conversion if you are using the Apple TV connected to a surround system. [Important if you ever intend to use the file with a surround system, otherwise omit this.]
6. Under picture tab select "Anamorphic" and "Strict" for DVD, or "Anamorphic NONE" and set the width to 1280 for Bluray with the keep ratio box checked. [Experts now feels Strict is better than Loose Anamorphic for DVD (that's a change from the past) and there is no Anamorphic for Blurays so turn it off. 1280 for Blurays makes your files 720p for size and compatibility, ATV2 will convert 1080p files but there are hiccups that make it not worth try to push beyond the stated spec.]
7. Add detelcine, decomb filters for DVD, *NO* filters for Bluray. [DVDs can use a bit of help from the filters, which only kick in if they feel they are needed, while Bluray sources are so clean you actually hurt the image and slow encoding if you leave them on.]

Really incredible, small but beautiful files from this much better than the current presets.


I had my own custom pre-sets and this preset blew mine away, quality and size. I encoded the same movie using my preset vs. the one above and the one above came out to a slightly smaller file and quality was SOOOO much better. 2 hour movie in roughly 30 minutes on a quad-core Mac Pro, with 12gb of ram. I am ripping my ENTIRE collection again using this new pre-set as it doesn't change the filesize much and getting so much better quality. Ripped about 300 movies so far, got about 450 left. Been copying 40-50 dvd's to my HD at a time and just setting up the queue in HB.